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Thursday, May 13, 2004
Clavel, Joel rap poll tampering
By Karen M. Flores & Gingging A. Campaņa
With Linette C. Ramos & Rene H. Martel
CEBU CITY -- The camps of gubernatorial candidate Celestino Martinez Jr. and aspiring Cebu City councilor Joel Garganera complained Wednesday that they were being systematically cheated of their votes.
Opposition party Kugi Uswag Sugbo (Kusug) also asked why the number of election returns submitted from Cebu City's south district exceeded the actual number of precincts by at least 107.
Garganera cried foul over misappreciated election returns, after at least 120 votes in his own barangay were taken off his name.
Garganera, who is with Kusug, showed reporters a copy of the election return from precinct 1104-A in Barangay Tinago, which showed that he got 133 votes.
However, in the summary of votes written on the right side of the election return, only "13" votes was written beside his name.
"This is blatant. In my own barangay I was deprived of 120 votes, how much more in other barangays where I am weak?" said Garganera, also Tinago barangay captain.
Special ops
Although allegations of fraud were raised as early as Monday, the charges made Wednesday, the second day of the official canvass, were more specific.
In the province, "special operations" involving millions in Cebu's second and fifth districts are being hatched to add to the votes of gubernatorial candidate Gwendolyn Garcia, said Rep. Clavel Asas-Martinez (Cebu, 4th district).
Garcia leads in the unofficial quick count, followed by Martinez's husband Celestino "Junie" Martinez Jr. As of 9 last night, C-Cimpel's count showed Garcia with 80,729 votes, compared to Martinez's 71,144.
But the partial, unofficial tally was based only on 21.3 percent of the province's 13,262 precincts.
At the close of Wednesday's canvassing at Capitol, the running total of results from 15 towns showed that Garcia had 52,130 votes, Martinez had 50,702, and John Gregory Osmeņa, 24,473.
Garcia also had 2,838 votes from Malabuyoc, which had been questioned but later resolved, credited to her.
Congresswoman Martinez accused the Garcia group of dagdag-bawas operations at the level of the municipal board of canvassers, so that only "tampered" certificates of canvass arrive at the Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBC) at the Capitol.
In the fifth district where P1.5 million is allegedly being dangled before canvassers, she accused Rep. Ace Durano of ordering the municipal board of Catmon town to prevent the transmission of the certificate of canvass.
Durano allegedly wants votes for gubernatorial aspirant Osmeņa, who is third in the quick count, credited instead to Gwen because "Ace knows that John-john is in a no-win situation. He's practically out of the race," Clavel told reporters when she visited the PBC at the Capitol social hall Wednesday noon.
Loser's rant?
Durano and lawyer Pablo John Garcia, representing his elder sister Gwen, immediately shot down Clavel's story. They denied involvement in a dagdag-bawas or vote-shaving and vote-padding operation in Cebu Province and hurled back the accusation at the other parties.
In an interview, Durano said, "The leaders in the district can confirm that my instruction is to protect the votes of John-john from the dagdag-bawas operation of Gwen and Junie."
He denied shifting allegiance from Osmeņa to Gwen by saying the "district is delivering for John-john as committed. My interest is to protect that."
For his part, Gov. Pablo Garcia, Gwen's father, dismissed Clavel's accusations as "panultihon sa pildero (loser's talk)."
"In this country, nobody loses in an election. You either win or you were cheated," said the governor.
In a talk with reporters, Pablo John said Clavel's story is a "diversionary tactic."
"We don't need dagdag-bawas, they do," Pablo John further said.
On the other hand, in Bogo in the fourth district, the canvassing area there was allegedly padlocked and their lawyers were not allowed inside, he said.
He expects Gwen to win by 20,000 to 25,000 votes, while Clavel said Junie will win by 15,000 to 20,000.
Last man
In Cebu City's case, Garganera said he does not want to assume anything, but pointed out that one of the members of the board of election inspectors (BEI) assigned in the precincts is an urban poor leader of Mayor Tomas Osmeņa.
Among all Kusug candidates, only Garganera guarded their votes at the canvassing at the Cebu Normal University (CNU) Wednesday.
"I'm the last man standing here, they're probably all tired. I can't blame them. I myself am tired but my candidacy is at stake here, I have to guard my votes," Garganera said.
Partial, unofficial results from C-Cimpel showed Garganera in the ninth slot for the north district, with 19,356 votes. His Kusug partymate Carmelita Piramide occupied the eighth and last council slot, with 19,385.
The results were based on 33 percent of the northern precincts.
Administration candidate Augustus Pe said Garganera should produce evidence that there was massive cheating.
Pe brushed aside allegations that one of the election inspectors was a party supporter, and threw the allegation back at the Tinago barangay captain.
"It can only happen in barangays that Garganera controls," he said.
In a phone interview, Kusug candidate for the south district Eugenio Gabuya said they have not given up yet but would rather wait for the results at their headquarters.
Objections
The Board of Canvassers (BOC) in Cebu City denied the petition Kusug filed at 4:50 p.m. to stop the canvassing of votes from at least two barangays in the south district.
"Wholesale objection is not allowed. Each ER (election return) should be the subject of a protest," the BOC said in its decision last night.
Kusug asked that the BOC exclude all ERs 1334 and up, because there are only 1,333 precincts in the south district.
The precincts that will be affected are in Barangays Tisa and Toong.
In reaction, lawyer Bernardito Florido of BO-PK said the protest is "flimsy and malicious because obviously, these precincts exist."
"Kusug got an official list of voters from these precincts. Also, it appointed watchers to these areas and they even authenticated the ERs. They signed the envelopes," Florido told reporters.
"This is a dilatory but futile attempt. The move will disenfranchise about 3,000 voters," Florido said.
Florido cited a Supreme Court ruling that cautions BOCs against acting on attempts to delay the canvassing of votes.
(May 13, 2004 issue)
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